Larissa

Hi guys
Yesterday we visited a friend on a 5 acre property in Muchea, NE of Perth. The scenary was stunning and we were really impressed with the possibilities, the quietness, the pace of living and sense of community. We're not planning to buy for a few more months, plus a lot depends on where hubby gets work. The kids were delighted by the space; think I have a little bushbaby on my hands! There's a primary school nearby and we would have to commute for shopping + hubby's work; getting rid of our current old banger and getting a much more reliable car. We're looking at going up for longer over Christmas and exploring the area.
I'd be really interested to know if there is anyone living up there, or in other rural areas and what your experiences (good and bad) have been.
Thanks!
Larissa

Kentish Man

Depends on what you and the family like really. I'm currently stuck in rural SA with the in laws bored rigid. There's plenty of space, lots of wildlife (a lot of it in my bed or clothing) and fine scenery but little sign of civilisation within walking distance. Locals tend to be fairly 'unique' (or maybe inbred is the word I'm looking for). Personally I'm craving a bit of city life or any sort of life but that's just me. There's plenty of people around here who are very happy with their lot and hate the idea of even visiting a city. If you're thinking about moving to the country have a long hard think about what sort of life you and the family want.

scutterUK

"...we were really impressed with the possibilities, the quietness, the pace of living and sense of community." Sounds like canberra...
"...we would have to commute for shopping + hubby's work..." yup still in canberra..
"There's plenty of space, lots of wildlife (a lot of it in my bed or clothing) and fine scenery but little sign of civilisation within walking distance. Locals tend to be fairly 'unique' (or maybe inbred is the word I'm looking for)..." Are you in canberra to?...

ok maybe i'm not looking at canberra from the right perspective yet. got to think bigger!

jad n rich

Having done the acerage thing 3 years ago, a few points we could offer.

1. Age of kids? How much driving around will they require, sport, school, activites, social life, after school entertainment, speak to mums of kids between 6 and 16 the driving can be rather overwhleming and not managable with one car dont meet many in the sticks with one car. Even 20/30 mins from town can suddenly seem a long way when you have to do it half dozen times a day.

2. Tanks, water and sewerage, living with tanks in our experience was not a dream, 3 kids, watching water usage, scared to rinse out a cup let alone bath, untill the tanks fill with sporodic rain was not for me anyway. Poo tanks often smelly and troublesome, make sure you have a new system.

3. Heat etc, whatever you do, experience these places away from the coast in full bore of summer, not 24 degrees the aussie summer one of 44. Fire area? could be a consideration too.

4. Acerage how much work will be required to maintain and what exactly can you do with the land if you have limited water (tanks) in hot aussie conditions, in other words will you end up living in a brown dust bowl.

This is not a post to put you off, just probably things that wont cross your mind till you have actually lived the acerage experience, hope it helps.

aussie73

l think the best way to live in Australia is in a house with an acerage in a scenic part of the country, but not in the middle of no where, relatively close to a city.

scoobydoo

We spent a short time living rural when we first got here in Victoria.

The heat of summer turned the cars, the house, everything into permanantly dust covered stuff. The inside of the house was impossible to keep clean.

The snakes loved the garden so I was always twitchy about the kids being outside.


Jad and Rich covered the rest about ferrying kids about and how time consuming that is.

The positives where the wonderful sounds of the birds and the quiet, and being able to step out of the door into bush. Also having that wonderful space around you all the time. I found that after being in the suburbs it was so nice to return "home" and could feel myself relax instantly!

Simone

Hi Larissa,

Friends of my parents/us of my parents who moved here 1987 now live in Lower Chittering(which is just east of Muchea). They lived the first 15 years in Hillary's, bought some land there cheap in 1995, and then built in about 1999.
I think they probably have about 2 acres, just bush really.
I would love it..... Downside: She works as a nurse at Sir Charles Gairdner.... That's about a one and a half hour drive...

He works somewhere on Wanneroo road. At least an hours drive...

If she has a shift till 11 pm, and then a morning shift (7am), she stays the night at their daughters house, in Padbury.

Argh, just saw you posted this on another thread!

STOP IT!!!! I want that!!!!!!!!!!!
How cute of the alpaca! Yeah, I think that's spelt right.


They live in the Wandena estate bit (up Powderbankrd, left into Patens dve, and the left in Caladenia Close.
You can just see the roof of one neighbours house, that's about it.

Simone

Yes, these are definetly down sides.
The friends I mentioned, kids all grown up.
A lot of people up there are 'older'.

They have to have there block backburned every year. This year the firebrigade did it(costs money).
They were very pissed off about how much water they used from the watertanks!!!

welshpom

(profile says Victor Harbor).

Victor Harbor's a sprawling metropolis. I only go there occasionally because I don't like the crowds.

DollyDaydream

Hi Kentish Man,

Hope all is going well for you.

Now I know I'm going to regret asking this but can you elaborate?

D D

Larissa

Thanks for all your comments guys. We're in no rush to move, so hopefully will have time to mull everything over and investigate more fully. Our friend has offered for us to house sit, so hopefully we can get a better idea. I've been thinking carefully about the distances involved and opportunities for the kids. Muchea is gorgeous (also has plentiful water as water table is high there and you still get the breeze from the sea, so not too hot) but it's just about as far away from Perth as you can go. Maybe we will be able to find some good land closer to Joondalup, as there are good facilities for the kids there. I've also found a good builder - fallen in love with "The Rural Building Co", www.ruralbuilding.com.au so hankering after the country lifestyle. Call me a pommie dreamer if you like, I admit getting obsessed with verandas and so on!
Must have a natter with Simone at our ladies night...

Simone

Yes, and you guys are coming round for dinner one day...
I do have evenings where I don't have anything to do, but those days I just wanna do nothing. Still getting used to working full time, and have such busy social life. I shouldn't complain of course

Btw, I forgot to mention we(my parents etc), had 4 acres down in Bridgetown when I was younger. A part of it was a wholesale nursery, but the rest was 2 paddocks, an orchard, a huge garden, a chicken run and goat pen.
It was only about 2 km out of Bridgetown though. Went to school with school bus.
We didn't have that many activities to go too. Mainly a few sports or swimming lessons.
Can't remember much, I was 10/14 yo.

Housesitting sounds like a good idea, if it's at least a week.
Animals must be a lot of work. You wouldn't both be able to work fulltime I think.(not that you want too..)


Argh, it's hard. I'm not even sure I want the whole big property(and that's not even considering Pascal's job and the money, that we don't even have...)

welshpom

I'm just learning this (not the hard way, I was prepared). Bought 100 acres with nothing but grass and ferral pine trees on it with the intention of building a home and hobby farm. Before we even got an architect for the house we had farm sheds built and stuck 7000 gallon tanks (http://www.hartill.net/Hindmarsh_Isl.../IMG_2920.html) next to both to catch part of out future needs. We've only had 300mm of rain so far this year. http://www.hartill.net/HI/, which is just enough to fill each 7000g tank once !.
If you have less than 300mm of rainfall in your area, do your sums first to see if the surface area of your house roof will sustain your needs.

Also be aware that if the property you're buying does not have existing powerlines nearby, you'll have to pay a fortune to get ETSA to extend the netwrok to reach you. It's going to cost us nearly $20k to bring power 240 metres from the nearest pole to our boundary. ETSA insist it is trenched 1 metre down - the council don't want any more new power poles errected.

Beware of buying 5-10 acres, it'll probably be too much work for yourself if you have a day job and not many contractors will be keen to bring their equipment in for such a small plot.

Larissa

Thanks for the info Simone!

Larissa

Thanks, that's really interesting. I showed hubby your water tanks and he wants to know how much they cost? 100 acres... wow... that's loads! Good luck with it all!